Green Gazpacho Soup with Rose Petal Ice

Chef Gaz Oakley, 24

The Avant-Garde Vegan

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Instagram + YouTube: @avantgardevegan

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Q: You’re an amazing chef, young, and social a drizzle of olive oil. media is creating all types of opportunities for you. I see your Instagram every day. What’s your story?

A: About 10 months ago, after months of friends’ and family’s encouragement, I started a vegan food page. I wanted to show people that you can create almost every type of dish using plant-based ingredients and show that dairy and other animal products are things of the past! Since creating the page, the response, feedback, and following has been incredible. I often get messages from people telling me how much my food pictures have inspired them to take up a vegan diet, which is my goal. Now I’ve launched a YouTube channel where I will be uploading stepby-step instructions on how I create my dishes. Since as long as I can remember, I have always enjoyed food and cooking. At 14, I was the youngest contestant on a National British Television program called Britain’s Best Dish. At 16 years old, I left school to take up my dream job as a professional chef. I learned so much from each restaurant I worked at, especially at a French restaurant where I learned traditional French cooking. I decided to go vegan nearly two years ago, and my passion for cooking is even stronger than ever. Being able to experiment with different ingredients on a daily basis is a dream come true and I’m also lucky that following the success of my social media pages I’m getting all these amazing opportunities.

Ingredients

4 cups spinach

2 garlic cloves

1 cucumber, deseeded and chopped

½ green chili, deseeded

Handful of mint

Handful of parsley

Handful of basil

1 mushy avocado, peeled & stoned

4 spring onions

4 tbsp coconut natural yogurt

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Method

Combine all the above ingredients in a food processor. Depending on the size of your processor, you may need to blitz it in stages to allow you to fit everything in. Once you’ve added everything to the processor, blitz while gradually adding water until it becomes a smooth, soupy consistency. Place the gazpacho into the fridge and chill until you’re ready to serve.

Rose Petal Ice Cubes

Using a ice cube tray, place rose petals into each compartment in the tray and add water. Freeze. Pop out when ready to serve. To serve, make a fancy avocado rose if you can. If not, a few slices per bowl is just as pretty. Pour the gazpacho around the avocado and garnish with fresh basil, pea shoots, the ice cubes, baby tomatoes, and a drizzle of olive oil.